A couple weeks ago I went to check out the Gingerbread House display at the Laurel Point Hotel. Afterwards I went to Centennial Square to take some shots of the ferris wheel. I got there, and realized they’ve already taken it down!!! The sun was setting and so I decided to go to Ogden Point to catch the sunset.

It was super windy, the waves were pretty rough, and the sunset wasn’t that great so it was a little disappointing…. And cold. I’ve come this far and couldn’t leave without getting a few pictures. So I set up my camera and tripod to play around with long exposure shots. I didn’t get a lot because I didn’t want to be in the cold anymore. Sooo here’s the two pictures (out of a lot of other pictures that I took which looked about the same). Nice and short blog post.

The first picture is an HDR picture. Decided to try that out since I haven’t in a while. I’m surprised at how I’m always learning new things about editing photos. It’s been a great experience!! And the second picture is just a normal 20 second exposure shot. Hope you all enjoy these!

On Aug 25th, Bethany, Lauren, Chrissy and I decided to go rock climbing for a day in Nanaimo River (Dion and Marilee were going to meet up with us later on). Chrissy has never climbed outdoors before, and Bethany and Lauren were always itching to do more rock climbing outside. We finally were able to arrange a day where all of us weren’t busy. So off we went!

The awesome part about Nanaimo River (Sunny Side) is, it’s a short hike to the crag. And once you get there, it’s an amazing view from up top, and then you get to rappel down. It’s always a great time!

Lead climbing a route called “Green (5.8)” (Thanks Lauren for taking some pics of me!)

Now that a top rope has been set up, it’s Bethany’s turn.

Lauren’s turn!

And this is Chrissy’s first outdoor climbing experience.

After this, we moved over to a really interesting corner climb. So after I set up the top rope, I stayed up at the top so I could take some pictures from up top. I’ve never done this kind of photography before, so it was new to me (which was really cool!). This route is called “Jamaica Jerk Off (5.7)”. Lauren was first to go on top rope!

Bethany’s turn on the route.

And Chrissy is next…

And look who finally showed up! Dion and Marilee!

Afterwards, we did a few more climbs… Lauren found a frog in a hole in the wall. It was an awesome day! Great to see Chrissy climb so well on her first time! As well as seeing the progress on Bethany and Lauren! Sooo proud of you all. It makes me super stoked seeing you all stoked on climbing and just getting better and better each time. Can’t wait for our next outdoor adventure!

Well…. Since I’m working full time now, I have to really take advantage of the weekends. Soooo what do I do? I go outdoor rock climbing! My friend Nashira came to make one last visit to Victoria before she moves to the interior (booooo!!), so Nashira, Dion, and I went to Nanaimo River for an awesome day of climbing on Sunny Side. I love this place! I also love the random chairs… Great view.

Also there’s a nice view of the river.

Once we finished taking pictures and admiring the view, we decided to get some rock climbing done! We decided to get to the bottom the cool way. Which is rappelling down with our gear. It’s always a good time.

This is Dion on Psychobabble (5.9) (the climber on the left).

This next route is called Jamaica Jerk Off (5.7)

While we were climbing, Nashira had homework to do.

This has become a pretty awesome day. I FINALLY finished one of my projects. The route is called Pseudo Placenta (5.11a). And my goal for this summer was to send a 5.11 route – which means climbing it without taking a fall or break. Soooo stoked!

photo by: Nashira Birch

Photo by: Nashira Birch

What an amazing day! So stoked to see what other projects I’ll be able to finish this summer!

Dion and I went rock climbing on June 30th at Mt MacDonald. Both of us were running a bit behind that day, but I was glad we had a really late start because it was SUPER hot out.

We got to the climbing area and decided it was going to be a really chill day because of the temperature (luckily it was late afternoon and the sun was slowly going down by the time we got there). We started with a 5.10a route (??) that wasn’t listed in my guidebook. Did another run at it, then afterwards took our food to the top and ate our supper while enjoying the amazing view from up top. After a good meal and a good chat, it was getting late, so we had to rappel down, pack up and head back home… Overall we didn’t do much climbing at all, but it was such a great time just talking and hanging out with a good friend. Here’s to more awesome days of climbing!

Well, it’s been a few years since the last time I was here. Dion and I saw a break in the weather, soooo we decided to do some awesome rock climbing at Darkside. Once we started hiking to the climbing area, a huge wave of flashbacks from the last time we visit hit me. That was when I knew it was going to be an amazing day. We had a late start, but oh well… We’re outside! So let’s get our climb on!

This is our hike into the climbing area. It’s such a unique place! Walls on either side of you… These pictures don’t do it justice.

We set up shop and had lunch in the area. Afterwards, we were ready to climb! This is Dion rappelling on Puppets On Strings (5.9). We weren’t able to take pictures while climbing because it was just the two of us…. Oh well..

After a few warmups, we were onto Too Much Boogie (5.10c). Excellent route! Nice and high, tricky in some spots, and fun! This is one of my projects. One day I’ll send it. And this was the last climb of the day as it started getting dark.

Wow it’s almost 2 months since my last post. I guess things got a bit hectic with work (finishing up my contract), looking for work, and dealing with other things in life. That’s just the way it is sometimes.

Well, the weather has been amazing this week, and I’m hoping it’ll stay like this forever! Matty and I took advantage of this by going out to East Sooke Park to do some geocaching. Recently there has been a geocaching event which resulted in A LOT of new caches at this park. Soooo we decided to tackle some. We found a total of 19 caches and we explored an area of the park which I’ve never been before so that’s always exciting!! Found some cool things along the way too!

3 more weeks until this project is over! It’s awesome and sad to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I thought I would have bailed halfway through the project, but I guess not!

This week I went to Esquimalt Lagoon. You drive down the road and there’s water on both sides of you. A lot of different types of birds, a nice long beach, and just a great place to just chill out. This place is great for photography! I guess I’ll just let you see for yourself. I wish I had more time to hang out here…

10mm, ISO 200, F9

10mm, ISO 200, F8

10mm, ISO 200, F8

Hope you all enjoy the pics as much as I enjoyed taking them! Have an awesome weekend!